THE FIRST REFORM BOMBSHELL!!!

For those of you who have been following me, I have said that the reform bill was bad for the country and bad for anyone who had to purchase individual insurance or any small business.

I am a Health Insurance Broker, self-employed, and I guess you could say small business owner. Here is the part of the bill I did not think would affect me for at least four years. I mis-read this part I guess.

Beginning January 1, 2011, Insurance carriers will be required to spend at least 80% of every premium dollar to health care and quality enhancing activities, rather than administrative costs, profits or broker’s commissions.

Now this will sound a little bitter, but I do not make a Congressman’s Salary, I actually make NO SALARY, and I am compensated only by what I produce to a given insurance company. I do not have a pension, and I wonder if the thought ever came up that CONGRESS had to take a 60% pay cut to fund the health care reform bill? That is what will happen to the health insurance brokers.

As a broker, I work hard for all of my clients. I make sure that they always have the best plan I can find for them at the best premium to meet their needs.

Under this 80% rule, most insurance carriers cannot survive under those conditions, and why can’t insurance companies make a profit, like every other business is hoping to do?

They still need to REFORM the cost of medical care, which is what drives insurance company premiums. Part of the cost of medicare is driven by the cost to cover Mal-practice insurance, as we have become a society that sues for everything.

I ask our elected officials… WILL YOU TAKE A 60% pay cut? You have forced me to take a 60% pay cut. So I have to find new products to sell, or eliminate the quality of customer service I give to my customers, because I have to spent at least 60% more of my day selling so I may have to cut the service time by 60%.

In the outstanding words from my father… “Aren’t you proud of yourself?”